Murtada Elfadl reporting from the New York Film Festival
How does a mercenary go about feeding off others? In particular an emotional mercenary. One who feeds on all those around him, particularly women, so that he can grow and thrive. Such is Martin Eden the eponymous character in Pietro Marcello's film which recently won TIFF's Platform award and the Volpi Cup in Venice for Best Actor. The film starts when Martin (Luca Marinelli) saves a young man from a bully and is taken in by his bourgeois family. At the time he is an uneducated labourer who gets by doing small jobs...
Soon he is captivated by Elena (Jessica Cressy), the refined daughter of his surrogate family, and through her he develops an ear for poetry and an ambition to become a writer. The other woman who nourish him are his older sister Giulia (Autilia Ranieri) who’s willing to house and feed him, and a widow (Carmen Pomella) with young children with whom he boards later in the film in exchange for odd jobs around her house. Another friend he leeches from is an older socialist (Carlo Cecchi) whose ideas and circle of friends he adopts.
The character of Martin Eden is as persuasive as the performance given by Luca Marinelli. Martin Eden is above all passionate, charming, committed and a romantic. Those around him can’t help but do his bidding, nor is he entirely aware he is depleting them while filling himself. And this is what makes this character study, based on the 1909 novel by American author Jack London, fascinating. We are as seduced by Martin as are all the people who meet him.
Marcello takes the time to show us his charming self whether dancing with a comely waitress, or eating pasta with gusto. We follow his enduring commitment to being a writer even as story after story is rejected by the magazines he sends them to. Martin is completely devoted to becoming a better writer and the film shows us the tenacity and determination that takes. It becomes even more engaging later on as it shows the depths of deceit he’s willing to go to and the folly of celebrity. Shot in gorgeous grainy 16mm this is grand filmmaking of the first order. The storytelling has an epic feel that harkens back in time to post WWII Italian neo-realism partly because the time when the story is never specified. A big impending war is mentioned but the costumes and other design elements look like 1970s. The mercenary charmer as a character study is nothing new but Martin Eden is worth it for the completely alluring and complicated performance by Marinelli.
Martin Eden will play on October 6 and 7 at the New York Film Festival and will be released in the US in 2020.